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Dedication to Life

Graduated Zine Intern, Michelle delivers a very heart felt reading of her poem Dedication to Life at her Zine Graduation.

Click the picture below to check out the video. A full text version of her poem is below:

Graduated Intern, Michelle reads a poem.

Dedication to My Life

By Michelle

LIFE, you were dreams of mine.
You were lies, and games , some happiness ,some burning flames.
You were the eyes of a young girl
Watching her parents
Screaming,
and breaking things
due to the lack of money.
You were the crazy eight year old who bit a kid
That no one believed was chocking you.
You were the innocent little girl who got jumped by 5 other girls
And a boy
In second grade,
on the playground in broad daylight.
LIFE, you were a sibling of trouble makers that made you become one.
You came from a nice place in California
Then moved to the “ghetto”, in LA at age 8.
You learned new ways to have “fun”.
You were then strong, and tough,
and absolutely did not take shit from anyone.
You saw war take place in your block on the streets,
you saw car chases ,you saw blood,
You saw 10 year old kids using hand guns.
You were raised outside
Sucked into bad influence.
The drugs ,the drinking, the stealing you did,
Not using common sense.
LIFE, you were the one who disrespected your peers
The one who skipped class
The one who got the idea to put glue in the teacher’s seat.
You were my report cards,
You were all those D’s.
You were a rebel
A failure in your families eyes.
You were the chick with the skateboard and sunglasses,the punk rocker,the”I don’t give a fuck “ person, the graffiti writer stuck in her illegal artwork.
The one being chased by cop cars for the way you used to looked.
You were the alchohol in my hands when it was sure
That my family had drifted apart.
LIFE, you were the 16 year old girl who found herself falling in love with a female.

You were there during the beginning of a beautiful story
You were there in the tragic ending.
LIFE, you were the one who took the pain and suffering when my mother outted me to the rest of my family.
You were there all those days my young brother made fun of me .
LIFE, you were there the night I blacked out from drinking and smoking too much crystal meth.
You were the horrible feeling in the morning , My purple swollen tongue.
The moment I regretted what I had done.
You were my depression I fell into
You were there when I saw my mother being attacked by her boyfriend
When she was a couple months pregnant .
You were the reasons I left my home that was no longer a home.
LIFE, you were the nights I slept on the streets
The roof tops, my sleeping bag under the trees
You were the 10 cigarettes daily I no longer smoke
You were the all night long walks, too afraid to sleep outside alone.
LIFE, you were my reason for giving up on you.
But you were there when I rose back up for you.
You were the shelter I slept in
You were the job I was hired for
You were finally a roof in my head
the place I could go to every night
And lay on my actual bed.
You were the courage I found to talk to my mother
And let her know a piece of what was going on with her youngest daughter
You were the motivation I discovered
the attending school again , the not being late for work once.
You were the protests I stood up for, the not being scared to speak out my mind.
You were my realization that I had to make something out of myself this time.
Forget the little girl that no one listened to ,they do now because she did not give up.
Forget the troubled rebel teenager .She has grown up.
If someone chokes me I know now just to bite harder.
Whether some one believes me or not.
If I get jumped I know they are going through the time in their lives I no longer live for.
And my family is still together
in my heart no matter what
They won’t walk out this door.
LIFE, You are who I am now.
The person you made me out to be
I believe in her
And I am proud to know that she is me.
LIFE, I dedicate this to you
because I can finally breath